PRICE TAGS Issue 68 May 13, 2005 Freeway Dreams
Queen Elizabeth Theatre Thanks to Scot Hein for these images of. UNREALIZED VANCOUVER Architect Christopher Owtram was 30 in 1955 when he received a special recommendation and $200 for his design of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The winners of the competition, a Montreal firm, got $3,000 and the contract to design the $2.75 million civic theatre. But Owtram got the publicity.
Owtram s Crossing Owtram of whom I can find no other reference, not even on Google appears again in the Vancouver media in 1959 with this extraordinary proposal: a First Narrows bridge, with a span of 2,000 feet, three decks, 12 lanes, running from Prospect Point to a point high on Taylor Way, leaping over Marine Drive. Not only was the scale of the bridge enormous, it was to be part of a vast road network. The top deck would feed Robson, Davie and Beach, all stripped of parking; the four middle lanes would serve Georgia and Marine; the bottom lanes would be reserved for rapid transit. And there would be a new road north of Georgia. Exasperated with what he said was a failure of vision, he offered the model free to government. Of course, none of it was built, not even the freeway system this crossing was meant to serve. And if it had, it would have created a city that would now be obsolete, or at least strangled in traffic and hostage to the price of oil - rather like the way the region is being developed out in the Fraser Valley
WHY is the Provincial Government going to spend $3 to $5 billion on a strategy which it acknowledges will not work? If, as everyone seems to say, we can't build our way out of traffic congestion, why are we desperately trying to do so? by Gordon Price
Premier Gordon Campbell chose Earth Day to pledge a new Pitt River Bridge (below) and interchange at the Mary Hill Bypass. Said the press release: "(The bridge) will reduce congestion and pollution caused by idling vehicles, helping to improve air quality in the Fraser Valley airshed." Improved air equality (leaving aside greenhouse gases) can only be achieved if the traffic keeps moving. Once it begins to congest again, air quality gets worse. So in fact the premise for the improvement must be that, yes, we can build our way of our congestion. Even though we say we can't. "I'm one of those people who actually believes that you cannot build your way out of congestion," Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon told the Vancouver Board of Trade in a speech just last month. Gordon Campbell said as recently as March: "I know this: you can't ever build yourself out of a transportation problem."
And yet governments, both regional and provincial, have announced the greatest commitment to road-building in the Lower Mainland in recent history. Add it up: the Golden Ears crossing, a twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, a widened Highway 1, upgraded interchanges - and more to come as the Gateway Program is implemented. Pitt River Bridge Mary Hill Interchange Port Mann Twin Hwy 1 Widening Golden Ears Bridge 200 th St. Interchange A huge loop consisting of the new bridges and widened roads will be constructed to join up both sides of the Fraser. It will greatly facilitate movement for short trips around the ring, particularly to serve the development that will cluster around the interchanges.
At the new 200 th Street Interchange on Highway 1, signs of the future are already up.
GVRD Growth Concentration Area The Fraser Highway Loop will undoubtedly accelerate sprawl to the east - outside the Growth Concentration Area. There will be relentless pressure on agricultural lands and open space within the loop. Since movement will be almost exclusively by car and truck, what likelihood is there that the targets of the Livable Region Strategic Plan will be met? 11.5 achievement of travel across the GVRD eastern boundary in the peak hour and direction of not more than 5,500 mixed traffic vehicles south of the Fraser River and 2,000 mixed traffic vehicles north of the Fraser River Compact Metropolitan Region Policies
Logically, new development along the arterials will be complementary - in other words, big boxes, industrial parks, single-use residential developments, strip malls and shopping centres, all organized around abundant free parking. The growth both served and generated by the new roads and bridges will be designed almost exclusively on the assumption that everyone will drive almost everywhere for everything. The result will turn the routes meant to handle through traffic, particularly the Trans-Canada Highway, into the main streets of suburbia. It will commit the fastest growing part of the GVRD to the automobile and truck, and to a future dependent on the price of oil.
Ironically, just as Vancouver is getting international credit for creating a livable, compact urban form, just as it is winning awards for its sustainability planning, just as it is about to host the World Urban Forum, we are committing huge resources to expand an oilintensive transportation system that will only encourage the kind of sprawling growth that will clog up the transportation infrastructure we are building to handle the growth generated by the previous investments. If this expansion is to make any sense at all, the government is obliged to demonstrate how a widened road or new bridge will be prevented from filling up to the point of congestion, which it will most certainly do if the road is seen as a free good. The government may have a model in mind which works, even if for political reasons they haven't articulated what it is, since it probably involves tolls.
In what may have been a moment of excess enthusiasm, Minister Falcon (left) said on CBC that if tolls make sense on a widened Highway 1, the government will consider them. In fact, the project doesn't make sense unless there are tolls - or some constraint on excess use. Would the government take the risk? Given the Premier's history as chair of the regional district and his willingness to entertain new policy initiatives, maybe he would. He's certainly saying the right words: "You have to design your way out (of a transportation problem). You've got to design a community around trying to make sure (people) don't have to move as much. B.C. Liberal Party platform Four: Lead the world in sustainable environmental management, with the best air quality... bar none
"I know this: You can't ever build yourself out of a transportation problem. You have to design yourself out. - Gordon Campbell That is the basis of the regional plan that Campbell was instrumental in creating when he chaired the GVRD. It's part of a vision that has served us since the 1970s and is now in danger of being dismantled by leadership south of the Fraser which does not wish to be constrained by mushy notions of sustainability. But it is also the plan - and ultimately the future of the livable region - that is in danger of being buried under layers of new asphalt.
SPOKESMAN To launch Bike Month in June, over 230,000 cycling guides will be delivered to homes in four municipalities each with its own customized section. Click here. It s a nice piece of work for BEST by Richard Campbell, who has always understood that good politics can produce good results.
FOLLOW JOHN
Wednesday Night Heritage Walks It's time to go walking in the evenings. Join John Atkin on Wednesdays at 7:00pm for a series of walks in interesting neighbourhoods. Each walk is $10 per person ($5 for Vancouver Museum members). May 18 th West End: From the park to the harbour We'll be exploring the West End slightly differently this time with a look at some of the older apartments to the north and towards Burrard Inlet. Meet at Nelson Park at the corner of Nelson and Thurlow. June 1 st Strathcona Hill Where is Strathcona Hill you might ask? It s the neighbourhood around City Hall. Once home to lumbermen, mayors and others before the First World War. Meet at Captain George Vancouver at City Hall.
June 15 th Southeast False Creek Before the 1920s the area south of False Creek was a residential area. Now its an industrial district but with a surprising mix of uses and architecture. Meet at the SkyTrain Station entrance on the east side of Main Street. June 22 nd Strathcona What's summer without a walk in Vancouver's oldest neighbourhood? Meet at the Strathcona Community Centre, Keefer and Princess. For John s website, click here.
Shenzen, 2001 Shanghai, 2001 Another western photographer aims his camera at the Asian city. Peter Bialobrzeski: Neon Tigers Click here. Beyond Metropolis studies planning and governance in the regions surrounding the twelve cities in Asia with populations over ten million: Tokyo, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, Delhi, Shanghai, Jakarta, Osaka, Beijing, Karachi, Metro Manila, and Seoul. Aprodicio Laquian Woodrow Wilson Center Press Click here to order. The author embraces, on one hand, unified regional planning and, on the other, cooperative efforts by urban residents for addressing their own problems. Beyond Metropolis builds on studies conducted during the 1990s under the Centre for Human Settlements at the University of British Columbia.
COMING SOON Grace Flatiron Downtown Residential Unit Completions by Year 1976 1990 2004
E:SPONSE Price Tags 67 Lanes From Terry Lavender of Lisa Brideau's piece on laneways was very good. You might not be aware, though, that there have been a couple of developments with regard to laneways here in the West End. First, the residents of Mole Hill were successful in getting a diverter installed at the east end of the laneway (right), preventing cars and other vehicles from entering the laneway from Thurlow Street. The diverter (which is on a six-month trial right now) has significantly reduced conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and automobile traffic and made the laneway even more of a pleasant experience than described in Lisa's essay.
Second, the West End Residents Association is undertaking two initiatives regarding laneways, one in association with the Davie Street Business Improvement Association to improve and tame the laneway north of Davie between Bute and Thurlow (below), which is currently an uninviting high-speed shortcut for automobiles. The second is a proposal to take one laneway in the West End and make it a more pleasant experience for pedestrians and less inviting for automobiles. WERA has been corresponding with the Planning and Engineering departments about this proposal. You can find details on our website by clicking here.
RE:SPONSE I thought I'd just provide an ironic footnote to the story of the Leslie Lane House. The City determined that despite being nicely positioned on a newly constructed and one of the City's finest lanes, it'd have to have frontage on the street to be legal. The house thus acquired a dog leg strip of land along Pendrell Street measuring 7.52 m. The owners (one of whom is George Stephenson, above) are of course elated. They now have a lane house and a lot that goes through from the street to the lane. But does it remain a lane house? - Jeffrey Patterson, Vancouver
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Photographs by Gordon Price